Grandparents and their grandchildren were the very specific groups protesting at the Javelin Park incinerator site in Gloucestershire today.

The protest, organised by environmental campaigners Jojo Mehta and Nick Weir comes on the back of the arrest of 78-year-old former probation officer Martin Stockwell outside the site, currently under construction, last month.

Protest at Javelin Park today

Jojo said: “It came home after that that older people are meant to be the wise ones, the people with wisdom and leadership, that young people and children are meant to look up to.

“There is a profound sense of responsibility among older people that this incinerator is being imposed upon young people and children who are growing up in such a different world.”

“We know that the two major creators of toxic dioxins are volcanoes and incinerators and why create that deadly pollution when you can do something else with the waste.

“The children in the area, in Stonehouse will have the pollution in their air at school and around their homes, and a lot of people are very concerned about it.”

A Gloucestershire County Council spokesman said, when Mr Stockwell was arrested in August: “The new energy from waste facility will allow us to treat the rubbish that currently goes to landfill in a clean and efficient way.

“This is great news and will support our aim of 70 per cent recycling across our county as well as reducing the county’s carbon emissions by 40,000 tonnes a year.

“It will save taxpayers over £100 million and generate enough clean electricity to power 25,000 homes at the same time.

“Earlier this year we were pleased to publish information which makes clear what we’ve said all along – that the energy from the waste facility is great value for money for taxpayers, that it supports recycling, and that there are no penalty clauses.”

Read More

Work will begin on Monday morning, September 25, to lay a cable under the street to link the Javelin park incinerator up to the national grid, to supply the power generated by burning waste to the country.